Amid tobacco crackdown, Russian doc urges compassion for smokers

Amid a state crackdown on smoking, Russia’s top addictions doctor said that long-time smokers cannot be cured and should not be “treated like animals” as they indulge in their habit, the Moscow Times reported:

Yevgeny Bryun, the chief narcologist at the Heath and Social Development Ministry, told reporters that smokers “pay for their sin” through tobacco taxes, so the government has an obligation to provide “civilized, humane conditions” where smokers can “fulfill their painful needs.”

Designated smoking areas should be reasonably comfortable with good ventilation, but many do not meet this standard, he said.

“Airports are now setting aside places to smoke, [but] these places are impossible to enter,” he said, Interfax reported. “This is an outrage. This is treating man like an animal, because he has paid for his sin.”

The Health and Social Development Ministry is considering legislation aimed at persuading Russians to give up smoking, including raising taxes on cigarettes, banning smoking on all public transportation by 2014 and eliminating smoking in cafes, bars and restaurants by 2015. Displaying cigarettes at stores and other points of sale could also be outlawed, the Times reported.